Protests against COVID curbs spread across China

Protests against heavy COVID-19 curbs have spread across China after a fire killed 10 people in a high-rise building in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region on Thursday.

Videos on social media show crowds taking to the street on Friday evening after Thursday’s fire chanting “End the lockdown!” and pumping their fists in the air.

The wave of civil disobedience, which has included protests in Beijing and other cities, has reached unprecedented levels in mainland China.

In Shanghai, China’s most populous city, residents gathered on Saturday night at Wulumuqi Road – which is named after Urumqi – for a candlelight vigil that turned into a protest in the early hours of Sunday.

At the campus of Beijing’s Tsinghua University a large crowd gathered, according to images and videos posted on social media.

Also Read: China eases COVID control measures

Other cities that have seen public dissent include Lanzhou in the northwest where residents on Saturday upturned COVID staff tents and smashed testing booths, posts on social media showed.

Protesters said they were put under lockdown even though no one had tested positive.

China has stuck with Xi’s signature zero-COVID policy even while much of the world tries to coexist with the coronavirus.

While low by global standards, China’s cases have hit record highs for days, with nearly 40,000 new infections on Saturday.

China defends the policy as life-saving and necessary to prevent overwhelming the healthcare system.

Officials have vowed to continue with it despite the growing public pushback and its mounting toll on the world’s second-biggest economy.

Widespread public protest is extremely rare in China, where room for dissent has been all but eliminated under Xi, forcing citizens mostly to vent on social media, where they play cat-and-mouse with censors.

Reuters/Zainab Sa’id